Encounter on the Narrow Ridge: A Life of Martin Buber

Martin Buber's stature as the most significant Jewish religious philosopher of the twentieth century is reinforced by his accomplishments and renown in areas as diverse as Hasidism, psychotherapy, education, folklore, and politics. His classic, I and Thou, is known and studied all over the world. In this complete and masterful biography, Maurice Friedman traces the interweaving of Buber's wholehearted engagement with world events and crises and the evolution of his unique and influential philosophy. We see the impact of World War I on the young thinker; his work in education, community, and politics between the wars; his leadership of the spiritual resistance to the Nazis in Hitler's Germany; and his more than forty years of fighting for Jewish-Arab understanding. In addition, we see Buber interact with Heidegger, Sartre, Jung, Ben Gurion, Hesse, Rosenzweig, and Hammarskjold. Through his close relationship with Buber and recent access to forty-five thousand unpublished letters, Maurice Friedman recreates Buber's vitality, his philosophy of dialogue, and his spirituality based on a personal relationship with God. Encounter on the Narrow Ridge delivers the essential spontaneity of a great man who saw in every encounter a focal point for human growth.

Buber, the most noted Jewish philosopher of the 20th century, has had a profound influence on contemporary thought through his theory of an inspired and direct dialog between man and God. In this biography, Friedman, a recognized authority on Buber, contributes a clear and lucid analysis largely based on his three-volume Martin Buber's Life and Work ( LJ 4/1/84). He traces Buber's career showing the pivotal events in his life as well as the influences of Judaism, Christianity, general philosophical thought, and linguistics on his writings and lectures. Friedman analyzes succinctly, but with great care, Buber's responses to the important events of the 20th century: the two World Wars, the Holocaust, postwar Germany from 1945-61, and the establishment of Israel and the Jewish-Arab problem. He also deftly explores Buber's differences with Theodor Herzl, David Ben-Gurion, Carl Jung, Jean Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger, and Dag Hammarskjold. This is highly recommended to all libraries.
-Maurice Tuchman, Hebrew Coll. Lib., Brookline, Mass.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.